A packet-based communications network (packet network) can transmit a data stream of bits in the form of packets of fixed or variable length for the purpose of moving information between computers. Each packet can be routed by address information contained in the data stream. Typically, one accesses a packet network through a client program executing on a personal computer (PC). There are approximately 30 million users of packet networks in the U.S. The Internet (the largest and most well-known of the existing packet networks) connects millions of computers in countries across the world. The World Wide Web represents a portion of the information on the Internet accessible through graphical user interface software (typically called a Web browser or browser). In addition to the Internet, many companies use packet networks, locally or internally within the company, which are modeled in functionality based upon the Internet. These packet networks, denoted "intranets" or "extranets," are compatible with the Internet Protocol (IP), a communications protocol that handles the address part of each data packet that is transmitted from one computer to another on the Internet.
A communications network, such as the Internet, can transmit pages of information to a user's computer for display. One example of such an information page is used in the World Wide Web (also called simply the "Web"), which stores and transmits information pages over the Internet using the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) transmitted via Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The information that comprises a Web page on the Internet typically resides on a computer known as a server, which is accessed through the Internet by a person utilizing a computer, such as a PC. In general, a Web page can include combinations of text, graphics, sound, video and small application programs. A Web page can also include a "link" which, when selected by a user, results in the automatic display of another Web page. A group of related Web pages connected by these links is sometimes referred to as a Web "site."
Each file of information on the Web is given a name, called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), that a browser uses to request a file. The URL is essentially a location that can represent an entire Web page, an image file or any other type of file supported by HTML. The Netscape Navigator.TM. browser, available from Netscape Communications Corporation in Mountain View, Calif., is one example of a browser that can request URLs and display Web pages to a user. Typically, a user at a PC will access the Internet by establishing a communications link with, or "logging onto," an Internet Service Provider (ISP), perhaps over a telephone line using a modem. When the user requests a Web page, the user's browser communicates with the Internet through the ISP to retrieve the information related to the requested URL.
Increasingly, businesses are establishing Web sites as a means of providing information to and attracting potential customers, and Web sites are emerging as an important tool for advertising. One may locate a company's Web site by, e.g., using one of a number of existing search engines available over the Internet, or browsing other Web sites containing links to the company's Web site, or directly entering the URL. Typically, Web browsing takes place in the context of an interactive communication session, where one may, for example, direct the Web browsing session by choosing to follow hypertext links found in Web sites and/or may respond to information located at various Web sites.
Businesses seeking to attract potential customers obviously want as many consumers as possible to view their advertisement Web pages. Many consumers, however, do not view advertisement Web pages due to the expense of accessing the Internet. An ISP typically generates revenue by charging a fee for providing access to the Internet, and the fees, which can be quite substantial, have been beyond the reach of many consumers. Therefore, some consumers have not had access to the Internet and are unable to view an advertiser's Web page.
Even if an advertiser or ISP wanted to provide free access to the Internet, or access at a reduced cost, to let more consumers view advertisement Web pages, consumers would likely spend a lot of time viewing Web pages unrelated to the advertisements. Without a way of granting access to a limited and pre-determined portion of the Web, namely selected advertisements, supporting consumer access to the Internet would be prohibitively expensive for the advertiser or ISP.
Moreover, an advertiser might prefer to grant access to a particular Web advertisement based on the identity of a user, including, for example, the user's age and income. An advertiser might decide, for example, that different groups of users should see different advertisements, or that some groups should be allowed to view an advertisement for a longer period of time. The traditional browser/ISP interface does not let an ISP restrict access to URLs based on the user's identity, because, as explained below, the user's identity is not known.
All information sent over the Internet is tagged with the unique IP address of both the sender and the recipient. An IP address is usually expressed as four decimal numbers separated by periods. When a browser requests an HTML page, the request will include the browser's IP address and the recipient, such as an advertiser, can respond using the browser's IP address. A different IP address may be assigned to a computer on which the browser software is running each time the browser connects to the Internet, making the identity of the user invisible in the traditional browser/Web server arrangement. An advertiser could insist that a user provide personal information, such as demographic data or a password, when the user visits an advertisement Web page. Many users, however, are reluctant to provide this information over the Internet, and others will not bother to spend the time required by such a method.
Advertisers might also be interested in other information about users visiting an advertisement Web page. For example, a demographic profile of the average user who visits a Web page, or the average number of times each user returns to a particular Web site, could help advertisers determine the effectiveness of the content. As explained above, however, there is no way for an advertiser to match the IP address of an HTTP request to a user's demographic information. Moreover, an advertiser has only a limited ability to determine if a particular user has visited a Web page before. It is possible, for example, for the advertiser to store the fact that a particular computer has visited a Web page in a small file, called a "cookie," placed on the computer's disk drive. This feature, however, is not available in all browsers. Furthermore, many users simply delete cookie files or decide to disable the feature entirely. In addition, cookie files cannot track a single person's history when two different PCs are used, and similarly do not usually account for multiple people using a single PC.
To limit the cost of providing free access, an advertiser might want to limit access to advertisement Web pages to a limited period of time. Alternately, an advertiser may wish to limit the number of times a user can visit, and re-visit, an advertisement Web page. Such limitations could depend on demographic information associated with the user, the time of day the request is made, or any other factor important to the advertiser. Because an advertiser cannot match the IP address of an HTTP request to a user's identity, however, there is no way to implement such limitations.
In view of the foregoing, it can be appreciated that a substantial need exists for a method and apparatus for limiting access to information pages in a communications network based on a user's identity, and solving the other problems discussed above.